San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid, formerly a vocal part of the Players Coalition that recently negotiated a $89 million deal with the NFL, recently announced that he had withdrawn from the coalition over concerns that Malcolm Jenkin misled him regarding agreeing not to negotiate on behalf of the players without at least one other coalition member present.
Yesterday, as the evening news cycle began, Slate published a story in which Reid continued to rail against the league in earnest. In the article, Reid said he has been told the NFL will be shifting funds that had been earmarked for other charitable campaigns to fund the so-called social injustice initiatives. The programs effected by this would be the breast cancer awareness and military service initiatives, which sounds like an inexplicably bad idea.
Some American football fans believe that the NFL protests are anti-patriotism, and anti-American. Erroneous or not, thats just how some people feel about. After months of NFL protesters trying to explain that their protests arent anti-American, even as a demagogic president insists otherwise, many are finally getting the point. If this is true, this nearly $100 million deal could further alienate an already up-in-arms mainstream fan base.
This reportedly is but one of several reasons why Reid says he has walked away from the Players Coalition.
Willie King on Twitter
The NFL has been using Malcolm Jenkins like the gov. used MLK. They paint him as the poster boy of “appropriate” protest because he couples it with some community work and police ride alongs. The NFL knew they couldn’t tame Kaep or Eric Reid. Stay the course brothas.
The league has expressed hope that the deal would effectively end player protesting during the national anthem, but there were no quid pro quo stipulations added to the deal. Malcolm Jenkins also said he will no longer raise a fist during the playing The Star-Spangled Banner, but Reid says, as far as hes aware, Jenkins is the only protesting player who supports the deal.
In the discussion that we had, Malcolm conveyed to usbased on discussions that he had with the NFLthat the money would come from funds that are already allocated to breast cancer awareness and Salute to Service, Reid said in an interview with Slate. So it would really be no skin off the owners backs: They would just move the money from those programs to this one.
We didnt agree with that, because we werent trying to cut other worthy programs, he added, discussing his and other players decision, announced on Wednesday, to leave the Players Coalition. They moved forward anyways.
Miami Dolphins safety Michael Thomas and Los Angeles Chargers offensive lineman Russell Okung joined Reid on Wednesday in announcing their decisions to leave the Players Coalition.
Russell Okung on Twitter
I agree with @E_Reid35’s assessment & also withdrew my involvement with the Players Coalition, effective earlier today.
Reid said he believes the NFL gave owners the option of reallocating funds to the social injustice initiatives rather than having to go into their profits to fund it.
[NFL Commissioner] Roger Goodell is trying to make this as easy for the owners to agree to as possible so thatagain, their goal is to end the protests, Reid said. Hes trying to make it as easy possible to do that for the owners. Hes going to present them with a proposal saying, Look you really dont have to do anything. Were just going to shift this money from this area and just move it here.
At no point did we ever communicate that an agreement with the NFL would end the protests, so for him to come to that point with the league, it was the last straw for me, Reid said.
Reid went on state that he does not believe that Jenkins group DID NOT spoke for many, if any, of the players who protested this season. More than 40 players were reportedly involved in the Players Coalition, but Reid continues dropping napalm on the whole thing. He says only 17 players participated in the group chat discussion about the deal, and not all of them were on every call in which the proposal was outlined.
Based on my understanding, every player who was actually protesting [aside from Jenkins] was not in agreement [with] this proposal, Reid told Slate. That leaves a remaining, I guess, nine or so players who dont protest who were in agreement with the proposal.
